For the last few days (and for the next week +) I am assigned to night Med Chase. What does that mean? That means my buddy Justin and I, along with two crew chiefs are working from 1830 to 0630 every night. Our job? Provide security and cas-evac for the Medevac bird.

In plain english, that means if there is a soldier, or local national that is wounded, the Med gets launched and we follow them. If they are landing "outside the wire" to pick up an individual, our job is to provide airborne security to them while on the ground and in flight. Our secondary mission is to assist in picking up any wounded individuals that will not fit in the Med bird or are not injured so severely as to need immediate medical attention. We then transport the soldier/civilian to the hospital as fast as we possibly can.

Its a tough mission to be on. When we fly it means someone has been injured or killed. Every time we start the helicopter its very bitter sweet, because as Army Aviators, we WANT to fly, day and night, as much as we can! But flying because someone has been wounded sucks. It can be gratifying to know that at times we are responsible for getting the wounded soldiers to medical attention VERY quickly and many times saving their lives. Other times, you wish you had never taken off.

Last night, shortly after dark, we decided that you all would like to see what WE see when we are flying with our Night Vision Goggles. So we snapped a couple pics out by our bird to give you all an idea what its like to fly with goggles strapped to your head. I'd love to get you some in flight pictures, but, we tend to get a little busy when we are in the air. Maybe later we'll have the time to snap a couple in-route NVG pictures.

These pictures are VERY bright due to the amount of light that is present on the air field. It gets quite a bit darker once we are away from all the airfield lights.

Laine.

Finally got to go out to the race track here in Kandahar last Sunday. I qualified 2nd, then won the first heat (7 trucks) then they reversed the field, so I started last. I got 3rd in that heat. Then, I started first for the 10 lap final. Ended up winning that too. Not bad considering Im runnin my 2WD Strike and I was racin against 2 and 4wd trucks.

Then we set up the big ramp and started doin silly stuff. Got a few decent pictures of our trucks tumbling through the air. As you can see, we had a guy there to catch them. No sense breakin stuff when it takes a week to 10 days to get parts!

I did end up twisting off a dog bone on my Strike though. So, I ordered a set of CVD's for it, along with a few "just in case" parts. That should solve that problem.

Another 6.4 hour flight day today. Been one busy week for sure! Had a nice photo op as we were cruising accross the red desert down here in RC South headed for Spin B.

Also, got a clearance you dont hear every day... "Crossbow 12, hold for a flight of two Mirages taxiing on 23." That said CAMERA TIME! to me!

Enjoy!

Laine.

Well, when you have 6 dudes in a 18 foot by 16 foot room, each person gets about 39 square feet of space (79" x 72" for each person). So, in mine, I designed a bed that sits 5' 8" off the ground (Im only 5' 7" tall), so I could put some shelves and a computer desk under it. Its now almost decent and gives me some amount of privacy. I made a stair case that doubles as shelves so I can get into bed without killing myself and also have a place to store some stuff. Works out pretty well.

Of course, I couldnt leave my 5 roomies hangin, so I made 6 sets of everything at the same time. I did the basics and helped them all assemble it, but they have to do their own "personalization" of the space under their beds. Everyone wants their stuff just a bit different, so I just help when needed with all that. I have two of those little refrigerators right outside my door as seen in the pics, so there was no way for me to have a door. So I made a sliding door that runs on some 1" wheels and slides in between two sheets of ply with spacers between them. Works pretty slick!

Oh, you can see my Losi Strike, DX3-S and my sons Stampede that he let me bring over here. Too bad the Stampede needs some help or I'd be runnin it! Too many parts broken right now. Im gonna have to place an order soon.

See ya'll later!

Laine.

Oh yeah, thanks to UBILDIT (Bo) I now have a truck to race at the local Kandahar Air Base track! My old bud Bo (aka Richard Weed) sent me out a Losi Strike, a DX-3S (with telemetry) an extra RX, 2 2S 5000mah hard case lipos and of course 2 packs of Camel Crush smokes and a bag of Twizzlers. (The guy knows me WAY too well!)

So, I now have a truck ready to go racin on Sunday... which just so happens is my 15th day of work and also a mandatory "reset day" (another word for a day off). Should be a good time. We are also doing a "demo" at the boardwalk (the place where everyone hangs out when they are not working on killin ragheads (sorry if that offends anyone, just havin fun)). We are trying to generate some interrest in RC out there. Since there are usuallly hundreds of people there at any given time, my guess is that it will work out pretty well.

Thanks for hookin me up so quick Bo!

Laine.